The effects of conservation tillage on potential groundwater recharge

Abstract

Measurements of soil water and chloride made in a 10-year-old tillage experiment in north-western Victoria, Australia, at Dooen, were used to calculate the effect of different tillage methods of fallowing in a fallow-wheat rotation on drainage below the root zone and hence potential recharge to groundwater. The soil type was a grey cracking clay (chromic vertisol) and the tillage methods included: stubble-retained zero-tilled fallows (SRNT), stubble-retained subsurface tilled fallow (SRST) and conventional fallow (no stubble fully tilled)-wheat rotation (NSCT). Calculations of potential recharge rate over the 10 year period of the tillage experiment in two fields showed between 18.5 and 18.6..